Spoilers for Thursday 4th May 2023 (Series 87, Heat 74)

[Toby McDonald]

GOUTIEST in R5
TAIHOAS in R8

[Gevin Chapwell]

A. Blundy v A. Blundred.

Nicer way for round 9 (out of time): (50+1)/3×4×8=544

I got Greem for the other one: (50 + 100 / (7 − 1 − 1)) × 7 = 490. So (50+20)×7.

[Howie Myers]

r7: MODULES (Ithought about MODULISE, but it doesn't exist)
r12 FETCHER

[Philip A]

I think you actually can have MODULISE, because MODULIZE exists as a rare verb in ODP meaning to render modular, and there’s a sneaky Countdown rule where if the -IZE (Oxford spelling) verb is in the dictionary then you can have the -ISE (rest of Britain) equivalent even if unspecified, which is why it’s in the Apterous database. Only the past tenses MODULISED and MODULIZED are listed but, although searching MODULISE does not direct, I see no reason why MODULISE would be disallowed.